Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.121, No.37, 8693-8705, 2017
Signaling-Related Mobility Changes in Bacterial Chemotaxis Receptors Revealed by Solid-State NMR
Bacteria employ remarkable membrane-bound nano arrays to sense their environment and direct their swimming. Arrays consist of chemotaxis receptor trimers of dimers that are bridged at their membrane-distal tips by rings of two cytoplasmic proteins, a kinase CheA and a coupling protein CheW. It is not clear how ligand binding to the periplasmic domain of the receptor deactivates the CheA kinase bound to the cytoplasmic tip similar to 300 angstrom away, but the mechanism is thought to involve changes in dynamics within the cytoplasmic domain. To test these proposals, we applied solid-state NMR mobility filtered experiments to functional complexes of the receptor cytoplasmic fragment (U-C-13,N-15-CF), CheA, and CheW. Assembly of these proteins into native-like, homogeneous arrays is mediated by either vesicle binding or molecular crowding agents, and paramagnetic relaxation enhancement is used to overcome sensitivity challenges in these large complexes. INEPT spectra reveal that a significant fraction of the receptor is dynamic on the nanosecond or shorter time scale, and these dynamics change with signaling state. The mobile regions are identified through a combination of biochemical and NMR approaches (protein truncations and unique chemical shifts). The INEPT spectra are consistent with an asymmetric mobility in the methylation region (N-helix mobility >> C-helix mobility) and reveal an increase in the mobility of the N-helix in the kinase-off state. This finding identifies functionally relevant dynamics in the receptor, and suggests that this N-helix segment plays a key role in propagating the signal.